This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Salt Lake County is holding an election for the 160,000 residents who live in six townships and 37 unincorporated islands, and it's complicated. So hang with us.

Called "Community Preservation," the election is intended to clarify, once and for all, what parts of the county will be cities and how the remaining non-cities will be managed. These are issues the county has wrestled for decades.

In some ways, the biggest change already happened when the legislation allowing this election also froze existing boundaries. It's piecemeal consumption of the unincorporated county that has left the remaining portions with a shifting tax base to cover costs of their services while they fought off annexations. It was not sustainable.

The biggest of those unincorporated areas – Millcreek, Magna, Kearns, Emigration Canyon, Copperton and White City — have been operating as townships. For them, this election is a two-part question: First, should they become a city, or should they be a "metro township," which grants powers for enacting ordinances and zoning that the current townships don't have, but does not have the taxing authority of a city.

The second question asks whether residents want to be part of a "Municipal Services District." The county would combine those who join the district into one entity that would oversee such things as building permits and road maintenance, including snow removal. The townships could choose not to join the district, in which case they will have to self-manage those duties with their sales-tax revenue. (Police, fire and sanitation still would be managed by the county no matter which option they choose.)

The biggest of the townships, Millcreek, is also the most viable as a city because it has the commercial tax base. Millcreek residents rejected incorporation two years ago, but city proponents are still pushing for it.

From a purely financial standpoint, metro townships will cost less than cities. If any of them want to become cities, there has to be strong desire to identify, and to compete, as cities. Cities create a new layer of government, but it's also apparent that those people who live in existing cities aren't interested in becoming townships. They wouldn't trade their autonomy and sense of identity, but those cities also start competing for development.

One big reason the townships cost less is the copper mine to the west and the ski resorts to the east. Both Kennecott and the resorts sit on unincorporated land, meaning a bigger chunk of their sales-tax revenue goes to unincorporated areas than to cities. Any township that incorporates will get less of this money. Again, Millcreek residents need to want to compete with other cities for economic development to justify becoming a city. If it's just about self rule, the metro township is the better choice. For the other townships, the metro township is an easier choice because they don't have the economic base to be cities at this point.

For any township, the prudent answer to the second question is, yes, join the Municipal Services District. There are too many economies of scale to try and operate their own road departments and issue their own business licenses.

As for the 37 islands, they have just one question: Do they join the cities that surround them, or do they fight on as unincorporated? In financial terms, it would be trading the special county tax they have now to fund their services for the taxes that cities assess. For most of those islands, the city they join would be Sandy, and Sandy says those who join will save money. For most of those islands, that should be enough to persuade them. For bigger islands like Granite and Willow Creek, they actually may find the county's services still work for them.

Bottom line: For townships, the metro township is likely the better model, and joining the Municipal Services District is definitely the way to go. For most of the islands, it's likely time to join a city.